jefferson county

Courthouse employee Patricia Kloefkorn was released from her position as the court coordinator for Jefferson County Judge Raquel West’s 252nd District Court once the judge learned of a Facebook post made by the staffer on her day off that was decried as offensive and crude by users of the social media platform.

Jefferson County, looking at a roughly $4 million shortfall between budget requests and revenues, could use some more money in the coffers. While raising taxes may be one way to accomplish that feat, according to Tax Assessor/Collector Allison Getz, another way to raise funds would be for delinquent property owners to pony up their fair share of taxes.

“About 98 percent of taxpayers pay their taxes,” Getz said. “It’s not fair to them not to go after the 2 percent that doesn’t.”

Jefferson County Criminal District Attorney Bob Wortham was the recipient of the Community Builder Award from the Beaumont Masonic Lodge No. 286, presented by members of the group Tuesday, July 12, at the Jefferson County Courthouse.

According to the award inscription, the honor went to Wortham because of his “distinguished service and personal contributions” to the community of Beaumont.

The City of Pinehurst, along with Orange County Office of Emergency Management and Sheriff’s Office, City of Orange, City of Vidor, City of Rose City, City of Pine Forest, City of West Orange and City of Bridge City will be participating with other cities within the Southeast Texas Region (Hardin, Jefferson and Orange Counties) to conduct a live exercise of our regional Southeast Texas Alerting Network system (STAN), also known as Blackboard Connect. The test will be conducted on Thursday, July 14.

A drug deal gone wrong that led to murder in Port Arthur resulted in a 40-year-sentence for a 20-year-old man, the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office announced July 8. According to a the DA's office, Logan Carter was sentenced Friday in the shooting death of 42-year-old Michael Blanchard that occurred on September 29, 2015.

Fourteen years later, Ford Park is still losing millions. Canceled shows and low participation in the events that do take place don’t help, but as shown in Jefferson County documentation of the publicly subsidized entertainment complex, neither do the six-figure salaries paid to employees that have yet to bring the project up to par.

An accident involving two pickup trucks June 25 resulted in injuries to one of the drivers whose vehicle rolled over several times after being struck from behind, Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Trooper Stephanie Davis reported over the weekend.

It’s been over six years since Yei Daniels and her family were taken hostage and tortured in their own house by an intruder who stabbed and shot the home’s occupants, leaving her paralyzed, but she said she remembers the event as if it happened only yesterday.

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